Girls soccer: Geneva tops WW South on PKs
Eighty minutes of soccer wasn't enough to settle the Class 3A Geneva regional championship game Friday. Neither were a pair of 10-minute overtimes.
It took penalty kicks to determine a winner between evenly matched Geneva and Wheaton Warrenville South, and the teams stayed just as close through PKs tied at 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3.
Senior Kyleigh Dominguez drove Geneva's fifth penalty kick into the right back of the net, and then Vikings goalkeeper Emma Harkleroad dove to her right to save Wheaton Warrenville South's final kick, giving the Vikings a 1-0 victory - 4-3 on PKs - and a spot in next week's Class 3A Bartlett sectional.
"It was intense. It was nerve-wracking. At the last second I could see which way she was going," Harkleroad said of the low-driven ball.
No. 3 seed Geneva (14-6-2) will play the winner of Saturday's Addison Trail regional - either No. 2 St. Charles East or No. 7 Wheaton North - at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Millennium Field.
Geneva won its 11th regional championship, eighth in the last 10 years.
"It was as exciting as they come," said Geneva coach Megan Owens, who had seen Harkleroad come through in a similar situation in a PK win over Neuqua Valley.
"It was such a battle by both sides. All credit to Wheaton South. We played with heart. I couldn't have asked more of them. It's more than some of them have been asked to play all season."
Wheaton Warrenville South (14-7-3) had the better scoring chances in the opening half. Owens credited defenders Leah Groven and Maddie Parise with keeping the Tigers off the scoreboard along with Maddie Yelle who marked Wheaton Warrenville South's Paige Miller.
"(Miller) is an amazing player and Maddie Yelle was just phenomenal for us," Owens said. "Just a great, athletic kid. It was a solid team victory."
The best scoring chances for both teams came in a flurry midway through the second half. After the Tigers' Emily Calloway took a long pass and headed it just over the crossbar, Geneva quickly went the other way and Dominguez had a shot past the keeper heading for the net until WW South's Ava Fickie came out of nowhere to clear the ball just before it crossed the line.
"Ava is incredible," WW South coach Guy Callipari said. "She has been doing that all year. How do you have 16 shutouts in 23 games? A lot of it has to do with her leadership because she had a freshman beside her and a freshman in net. Ava cleaned things up all year."
Anna Fank, Allison Harvey and Julia Hildebrand converted penalty kicks for the Tigers countered by Briar Schwardt, Emily Hauser, Jenna Dominguez and Kyleigh Dominguez for the Vikings - setting up Harkleroad's regional-clinching save.
"We played really hard from the start and our defense was really solid back there," Harkleroad said.
"It's unfortunate it comes to a situation where sometimes the pressure gets on you a little and it did today at the end," said Callipari, whose team allowed just 1 goal in last 8 matches.